Derby Girl by Shauna Cross

Derby Girl by Shauna Cross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazing! The characters are extremely quirky and they represent us weird indie loving kids out there. :) I love how different this book is than most. The book is about a girl named Bliss stuck in a tiny town who is forced to compete in pageants for her mom all the time. Bliss doesn't enjoy pageants though and becomes interested in roller derby. She joins a team and begins to secretly play behind her parents' back. On her journey she loses a friend, finds out about love, and learns about how supportive a parent can be. I would recommend this book to anybody that likes indie music, roller derby and comedy. I would also suggest it to anyone whose ever watched the movie Whip It, which is obviously based on the book. Happy Reading!

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Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As always I love the way Ellen Hopkins writes her stories. In this book there were very interesting characters. There's Mikayla, the perfect, popular girl whose world gets turned upside down because of one wrong choice at the wrong time, then there's Shane, who came out of the closet and is given grief by his father all the time and has a little sister that is slowly dying, and last but not least is Harley, a good girl tired of her image who is willing to change for the attentions of a boy. I love how realistic everything is and how true and, sometimes even, graphic the characters can be. Just like in real life we can't deny the fact that people like that really exist. One thing that did disappoint me in this book was the ending. It just didn't seem complete and there were many issues that were unresolved. I know that some people might find that cliff hanger satisfying but I personally think she could have added a bit more to the story. The least I can hope for now is the release of another book with at least two of the characters and the rest of their stories involved.

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Anti-Prom

The Anti-Prom by Abby McDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was truly a great teen book although I found it a tad unrealistic. People rarely ever change so much over one night especially after a lifetime or even just years of acting a certain way. The book is inspirational almost and gives three totally different perspectives. There is Bliss who is the popular and perfect beautiful girl. Then there's Jolene who is trouble and terrifies others. Last but not least is Meg, the shy wallflower.
What really caught my attention was how the author depicted that despite outer appearances people are motivated by different things. Bliss was motivated by fear of disappointing and angering someone. Jolene's cause of angst was real neglect and imagined neglect from two different people and Meg's withdrawn personality was a result of an important person's death.
The book helps us view how people really work and it really helps send a message that we all need to know. That message is to be ourselves. The characters were realistic but the way they changed and adapted so quickly is unlikely. I suppose it can be done but I still think more time would be necessary for such a change.

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Dororo Vol. 3

Dororo, Vol. 3 by Osamu Tezuka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The third Dororo volume was just as great as expected. Little Dororo has a bigger role now that the third volume has begun and him and Hyakkimaru almost split up multiple times. Hyakkimaru finally decides to officially look for who he suspects is his dad and Dororo gets abandoned more than once. Hyakkimaru also finally reveals a huge secret about Dororo that even Dororo might not realize. This secret is hinted at multiple times in the book but never actually revealed until the final chapter in the third volume. The characters are still great as always and there is also quite a variety of demons. Lots of the demons do have similar characteristics but the different visuals help in identifying them. Many demons are tied in with humans in this books and of course in the end there is a big battle. The twist though is that Hyakkimaru's adventure doesn't stop there and he is yet to be whole. So the ending does leave a lot to the imagination which can be very frustrating for some but also very enjoyable by others who may prefer to envision their own ending.

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Distractions, Distractions, Distractions!

AAAHHHH!!! My frustration keeps building... :\ Working at a library is much too complicated when you are an avid bookworm. Especially when new books come in. Starting tons of different series at a time really doesn't help either. This is ONE of the reasons I haven't been on either of my blogs lately. I've been trying to catch up on my reading.... but it is not working. I am officially going to change my reading list since I'm going through a genre metamorphosis of some sort. I was recently really into reading series books as well as lots of non-fiction. Well, that has completely changed and I am now into reading coming of age and discovering yourself YA books. I don't know how it happened, but it did and it's much too late to change that since I have checked out about five new books in my new genre interest. :) I have these phases quite often so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

http://cbrajkovich.com/2012/08/page/3/

On other news in the life of Abriezel, my chihuahua had her puppies... but two of the little beans didn't make it. It was her first heat and her first pregnancy so I can't say I was surprised, although I was very saddened by the loss. I can say I was relieved she didn't try to eat the dead puppies as some dogs like to do. Instead, she cleaned them off and laid them next to each other. She also seems to be slightly depressed and will wander away from everyone and her pup every once in awhile so we're keeping an eye on her so she'll take care of her little puppy. It really upsets me when an animal passes away. Which is why I fully support animal care organizations, especially the world wildlife foundation, along with many others.

http://worldwildlife.org/

Among all this news in my life I celebrated Turkey Day on Thursday and a friend's birthday on Saturday, so my week was quite eventful. Some old friends have come back into town and invited us over for a bit and I have also applied to a university to study business online and am very hopeful that I will be accepted and start school this coming January. Overall, there have been quite a bit of ups and downs these past few days as well as much creative, writing, and reading blockage which has been keeping me from blogging and I sincerely have missed it.

http://www.brightlightbigdarkness.com/2010/07/life-lesson-4-declutter-distractions.html

<3 Abriezel

Mayor Stubbs in Talkeetna, Alaska

http://www.catsparella.com/2012/07/around-world-in-80-cats-19-alaska.html

I was thinking of what to write about recently and at some point around this time I remembered an interesting news story about a town in Alaska and their mayor. Mayor Stubbs is pictured above and yes... this cat is a mayor and has a glass of water lined with catnip on a daily basis! :) Mayor Stubbs has held his position since soon after his birth which was over 15 years ago. Now, I have told myself that animals are better than some people out there and if I ever needed proof of this, here it is. Stubbs was elected by accident in Talkeetna, Alaska after the people decided they didn't like the human candidates and voted him in as a joke. He has been re-elected over and over since then and it seems that they are doing just fine with a cat mayor. It really makes me wonder what would happen if we elected a dog president one day. How much of a difference would it make since Congress has most of the power and the president is almost just a figurehead. Biggest problem I could think of is the fact that our military would be run by a dog then.

<3 Abriezel

Here's the link to a news story on this wonderful little mayor: http://thefw.com/stubbs-cat-mayor/

Dororo Vol. 2

Dororo, Vol. 2 by Osamu Tezuka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The second Dororo manga was just as great as the first one. It had just as many surprises and the characters remain just as loveable. Especially little Dororo. :) Dororo and Hyakkimaru (the other main character) go through many more adventures and even almost split up. There's a big secret relating to Dororo and that is quite a twist because since the beginning of the book lots of attention has been focused on Hyakkimaru who is the one that is missing body parts and slowly gaining them, which is ironic due to the name of the manga. Nonetheless, Dororo has now gained a stronger role in this volume and along with this twist, Hyakkimaru finally finds out about his birth parents and even meets a new family member never mentioned before. There is just as much action and emotional breakthroughs in this volume as there is in the first one. I can't wait to read the third and final manga in this series. What I have read so far has convinced me to go on the hunt to buy all three volumes in this manga.

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